The Unknown Dark Swordsman
by StoryTete
Summary: Lisbeth has a friend! And I'm not talking about Asuna. Before she met Kirito, Lisbeth met another male player. He was a strong character who was never really noticed. This story is about that friend who doesn't understand why she likes Kirito.
1. Tosuke

**Well, here's the first chapter of something that just popped into my head while on a long car ride.**

**I did my best to edit it and keep errors to a minimum.**

**I hope you enjoy it!**

**I d not own Sword Art Online nor any of its characters!**

* * *

He tried to run around it, throwing daggers with his left hand and holding a sword with his right hand. The daggers had little effect, but they did their job; distracting and startling the opponent.

He quickly dashed towards the monster in an attempt to finish it off.

But he failed.

It wasn't that he didn't hit his opponent. But rather, he did hit the monster, cutting him across the chest.

The problem was that the wound he inflicted was too shallow. The monster had moved away enough to avoid its death.

The monster had a .000005% chance of spawning. It loved to sneak up on its victims. And as if to add to its rarity, if it's sneak attack succeeded, its speed and strength would increase 1.3 times its normal stats.

The monster laughed at him.

Or at least it looked like it did. The monster was called Robin the Bandit. It had a human like silhouette, but had a unique way of standing. It always had its knees slightly bent, and leaned back in a way that if you blocked out his upper body with your hand from the torso to the nape of the neck, you wouldn't be able to tell he was leaning. He used daggers as his main weapon, and his stance made it easy for him to use them. The monster's face always wore a smile as if mocking you.

Robin the Bandit was as strong as a field boss, and had succeeded with its sneak attack. The boy was in trouble. He had half of his health left and had already used his favorite distraction.

But he wasn't weak, and he was always alert.

Normally, a sneak attack wouldn't have worked against him, but this time was different.

He was walking, lost in thought. Or to be more accurate, he was thinking about if he should visit his friend.

She was a blacksmith who had a shop he frequented.

He didn't want to annoy her, which is why he was wondering if enough days had passed since his last visit, when he was suddenly brought back from his thoughts by a cut to his back.

"Guess I'll put in more effort" he sighed as he decided to end the fight with his next move.

He switched his sword to his left hand. He crouched down going into his own unique stance, left foot forward, right foot ready to kick off the ground, and his sword held in his right side. His left arm held across his body holding the sword in a low position by his waist, and his right hand behind the sword.

He didn't want to use this technique because it was something he created, thus the system didn't help him carry out the attack.

He had to focus and do everything himself.

He dashed forward toward the bandit once again and swung his left arm across as if to slash upwards.

The monster was quick.

Still with his twisted smirk, it moved both hands forward in order to block.

But…

Nothing was blocked.

Although the bandits speed was perfect, there was nothing to block.

The boy had swung his left hand, but he had let go of the sword and only used the movement of his arm as a feint.

He caught the sword with is right hand, and cut the monster in two.

"Laugh at that, bastard" said the boy.

His smirk gone, the Bandit broke into a million little pieces and disappeared.

"I guess I'll visit Liz after all." The boy sheathed his sword and continued on his way.

* * *

His name was Kosuke, Kosuke Touguto.

Though most people around him didn't know him by that name.

Here, where he was, he went by Tosuke.

Tosuke was currently in a world known as Sword Art Online, SAO for short. It was an online virtual reality game. The first real VRMMORPG.

A little over a year ago, when it was released, everybody who was logged on (10,000 people) became unable to log out. Unable to escape the game until all 100 floors of the castle known as Aincrad were cleared.

The first couple of weeks were hell, if you died in the game, you died in real life. These words caused terror and confusion amongst the players when the GM(game master) spoke them all those months ago.

Among the confusion, some people didn't believe they would die, there were many suicides among them.

Tosuke, on the other hand, believed it right away after seeing the news clips shown by the GM.

It was tough at first.

Because he had logged on alone, Tosuke had no friends here. Tosuke was never very social even as Kosuke Touguto, thus he had very few friends. And even though he was in an online game, he still wasn't very good at making friends and socializing.

But, he ran into someone early in the game, her name here is Lisbeth. The blacksmith friend he had with whom he likes to talk to.

He didn't go a week without visiting her at least once. In fact, he was on his way to visit her at her shop right now.

When they met, Tosuke was in a dungeon somewhere in the 6th floor fighting solo, when he saw a girl on the ground being attacked by a goblin. Tosuke, confident in his skills, ran to her rescue cutting down the goblin. What he didn't know was that the girl was losing only because there were two goblins attacking her and she didn't know how to handle two opponents. Tosuke was hit from behind by the other goblin who, until now, he couldn't see. In which case, it was the girls turn to save the day; she smashed the goblin with her mace. And that's how he met Liz.

Until this day, she reminds him of how careless he was.

Having arrived to his destination, Tosuke opened the door to the shop, a little bell ringing as he entered.

"Liz!" he shouted.

"The coolest person you know is here!"

"Haha you wish!" was the response Tosuke barely managed to make out.

Laughter could be heard followed by footsteps, slowly getting louder and louder. Until a girl with pink hair popped out from the doorway that lead to the back of the store, where the weapons were most likely made.

"It's been a while Tosuke, what have you been up to?" Tosuke couldn't help notice the smile she always greeted him with and a smile formed on his face too.

"The usual, I almost died thanks to you though!"

"What!? How!" A genuinely concerned expression appeared on Lisbeth's face.

"Yeah, I was walking through a field thinking about uh…" he hesitated for a moment.

"Thinking about how if I should get you to check up on my sword, when I was attacked by a rare monster! I lost half of my health with just two attacks!"

"What!? How?"

"The monster had a special ability that increased its speed and attack after a successful sneak attack." Tosuke explained.

"Damn, you're unlucky, what are the odds of running into one of those? Haha, and don't blame me for your own stupidity! It's not my fault you don't pay attention!"

"Excuse me, did you say something?"

"Tosuke!" Lisbeth threw a punch at Tosuke, but he got out of the way.

"Hahaha, I was joking. Calm down, calm down."

Liz crossed her arms and moved her head to the side with a hmph sound.

"Jerk" she muttered.

She looked at him and started smiling again.

"How have you been Liz? You seem to be as lively as ever"

"Just about the same I guess, oh! I just finished what I consider to be my best sword ever!" She had her hand on her cheek and then raised her finger pointing at the sword.

"Cool, can I see it?"

Liz agreed and handed the sword over to him.

"Whoa, it's light. Not that I'm a fan of heavy swords." Tosuke swung the sword a couple of times and looked at it.

"It feels stronger than your other swords, not my style though. Did you make this for Asuna?"

"Not specifically, but it is a sword meant for someone like her"

"I like mine better" Tosuke pulled out his sword from its sheath and showed it off. It was a dark color, black to be exact, and shone orange when swung. It was second only to one. Its name was Shadow Destroyer

Lisbeth received the sword from Tosuke.

"I still can't believe you have the second strongest sword you can get as a monster drop. I'd call you lucky if I didn't know any better"

"Wow, thanks"

"I'll give it some maintenance; in the meantime, you can go get lost somewhere."

"But you'd miss me if I got lost, haha"

"Yeah right!" Said Liz sarcastically.

"Alright, you look busy, so I'll walk around town for a bit. See ya!"

* * *

**That's the end of chapter one, chapter two will be on its way as soon as I get bored and start to write again haha**


	2. Dark Swordsman pt 1

**Here's chapter 2! **

**I do not own Sword Art Online or any of its characters.**

* * *

Asuna was in an unusually good mood.

And although she wouldn't admit it, it was because of who she was going to meet up with today.

She was meeting a certain dark clothed solo player.

There meeting wasn't right now, they had decided to meet up later.

Right now, she was on her way to meet up with Liz, her friend who was also a skilled blacksmith.

Asuna visited her for weapon maintenance, but that wasn't the only reason she dropped by. They were friends, and as such, they enjoyed each other's company.

This time she was visiting her for maintenance on her Rapier, and to kill some time before her appointment later on.

She was in the city walking through the people when she suddenly saw a figure wearing dark armor. It was classified as armor, but it looked more like a coat than a metal plate that one would expect to see as armor.

Asuna freaked out.

"Is that kirito!? What is he doing here? He rarely visits the lower floors!" Asuna became frantic not being mentally prepared to see him yet.

As the figure got closer, Asuna realized the armor was different; in fact it was not pure black but had some gray areas as part of its design.

"That's not kirito" she thought.

It couldn't be, the figure was taller than kirito, and not just by a few centimeters, but by several.

Regardless she recognized the figure.

"Tosuke!"

* * *

Tosuke was walking around the town killing time just as he had told Liz.

There were more people than usual on the streets, though not as packed as it got during its busy hours. Right now it wasn't the busy hours, but he still disliked so many people around him.

He was walking through the main street when he heard someone call out to him.

"Tosuke!"

He turned around and saw a small girl (or maybe not small, but for him she was).

"Asuna?" answered Tosuke surprised.

Asuna was also a friend of Lisbeth's, and she was known as Asuna the Flash. She was the second in command for the knights of the blood (or Knights of the blood oath) and part of the assault team.

Tosuke got to know her thanks to his frequent visits with Liz, but he had met her before they were introduced to each other at the shop.

Much like what had happened now; Asuna had seen Tosuke fighting a monster on the frontlines and mistook him for Kirito. They dressed more or less similarly though you could tell them apart if they were next to each other.

She called out to him and much to her surprise, he wasn't Kirito. The shocked Tosuke only stared awkwardly at the embarrassed Asuna as she apologized for her mistake.

"Are you coming from Liz's place?"

"Yeah, and you're headed there?"

"You know it!"

Tosuke noticed Asuna's extremely good mood.

"Did something good happen?" he asked.

"Eh, what do you mean?" Asuna was thrown back by his question.

"Well, you just look like you're in a very good mood"

"So does that mean to you I'm always in a bad mood!?" Asuna let herself show her irritation.

"Oh no, not at all. That wasn't what I meant at all" realizing his mistake Tosuke spoke quickly trying to make up for it somehow.

"Are you going to leave your Rapier with Liz? She made a new sword that would fit you perfectly" Tosuke tried to change the subject.

"Really? And yeah, I'm going to get her to look at it and improve it if she can." Said Asuna as she went along with Tosuke's change of subject.

"Yeah really, I tried the sword out and it's a strong speed type. I don't know much about the speed accuracy types you like to use, but it reminded me of you. Liz thinks so too."

"I'll ask her to let me see it then, sense you insist so much."

Suddenly, Asuna had an urge to do something. She hadn't done this in a while, and hadn't been in the mood to either with all the tough work at the guild including managing all the new members, she was usually too tired to joke around.

But today, she felt great. She had the energy to speak, so she did.

"Sooooooo, Tosukeeeeeee." Asuna's face suddenly brought out a smile, and although everyone in SAO would agree that she was one of the most attractive players stuck in the game, the smile she gave was not the type that struck your heart.

It was a different smile. A smile with some sort of malicious intent was what Asuna brought out. Tosuke noticed it and began to fear what was coming next.

"You've been visiting Liz a lot, haven't you?" Asuna's voice was the one she used when she teased people.

"…"

"And you always have a smile when you're talking to her"

"…"

Her smile grew into something larger, a huge grin would be a better description.

"So when are you going to ask her out?" and just like that, Asuna was in control of the conversation.

"Like for a walk? Haha" Tosuke tried to laugh it off.

"You know that's not what I mean!" Asuna got mad at him.

"Don't get mad, I know what you mean. I just don't see her that way. She's a valuable friend and nothing more. Probably…" Tosuke mumbled the last part.

"Well I can see that, you two get along great so I thought maybe you could be in that kind of relationship…"

"…"

"You know, if you wait too long someone else will beat you to her." Asuna's face became serious as if she knew something would happen soon and couldn't stand watching Tosuke sit still and do nothing.

"…" Tosuke again said nothing but just gave an awkward smile and put his hand behind his neck in an anime style.

Asuna gave him another look as if studying him.

"Well whatever" she thought to herself.

She hadn't talked to Liz about relationships and stuff like that for a while, but she still doubted there was anybody she liked. And even though she was attractive, Asuna didn't know about anybody who had an eye out for her friend.

"I have to go now, I have something to do after I visit Liz. See you later!" Asuna began to head toward her destination, leaving Tosuke behind.

As she was leaving she yelled back.

"I haven't seen you in the front lines in a while, you should come! " Asuna's figure became smaller and smaller until it was gone.

"The front lines huh."

Tosuke used to appear frequently in the front lines with the assault team, but recently he'd been slacking off. The reason he had been slacking off was because fighting solo in the front lines has been getting harder and harder. It took a lot of work to fight and not get hurt to the point that your health reached the red zone.

Plus, even though he was a high level player, Tosuke was far from being the best.

He had been fighting mostly solo since the game began, but there was someone better than him who also avoided joining party's or guilds. He was known as The Black Swordsman.

Tosuke had seen him a couple of times, and he was skilled to a point that discouraged Tosuke. He decided he would level up as much as he can in the lower floors before he went to the front lines again, especially since it was safer to fight down here.

Kirito, that was the name of The Black Swordsman. Tosuke learned this when he was talking to Asuna one day. He had seen her get along with him and so he asked about him. Turns out they had something in common besides their choice of weapon and clothes, they were both bad with people.

Although he had seen kirito, and probably fought alongside him in the front lines, they never really talked. They never formed a party together. They were far from being friends, though they weren't enemies.

They say opposites attract, and though he had only heard this saying used for couples, he thought the opposite fit their relationship completely. If opposites attract like with magnets, what happens when you put a positive with a positive? He remembered when he was a kid and tried it out with some magnets. Even though the sides were supposed to be alike, they repelled each other.

This, however, in no way means they are the same.

No.

If you had a magnet on your left hand and another on your right hand, even though they are both categorized as magnets, they are different. The brand could be different, the strength of its magnetism, and the methods to create them. There are so many differences possible, and that was how he and The Black Swordsman were.

They might have some similarities, but they were entirely different people.

Tosuke had gotten lost in thought again. This was becoming more and more common recently. Maybe it was because he had gotten somewhat used to living in SAO and is finally able to relax more.

He looked at his surroundings.

He had no idea when he got here, but he had walked to a more isolated area of the city. It was nice and quiet. This was the kind of place he liked to do his thinking.

He had entered an amphitheatre type of place, with layers that gradually sunk into the ground about two feet. There seemed to be an endless amount of trees surrounding the area, making a closed off place where only a small amount of sunlight could get through, this made it even more isolated but beautiful nonetheless.

When he was in the real world, well… when he was outside of SAO, he used to wonder off and space out a lot. He looked for quiet places, like what he had just found, in order to think.

He never thought about anything specific, he just thought about trivial things. He thought about what he ate that day, what he watched on TV and what could happen next.

He really had gotten used to living here, in this virtual world, even if just a little.

Tosuke had felt tired thanks to walking around so many people, but he felt better now.

He decided to head back to the shop. Making a mental note of where he was and how to get back there.

* * *

**That's the end of chapter 2, I hope you enjoyed it (or it was at least a good pass time).**

**Yay! Asuna appeared! And well uh… She's friendly with Tosuke, not as much as with Kirito and Liz, but still gets along with him enough to show some of her emotions.**

**I had half of this completed when I uploaded chapter 1, but I had trouble deciding what else to put sense I didn't want Asuna's appearance to be too long (it is just her first appearance).**

**I feel like if Tosuke overshadowed Asuna in this chapter, but I guess she isn't the main character in this fanfic, so it should be fine? Anyway..!**

**Please review!**


	3. Dual wield

**Chapter 3 is finally out!**

**I was in a bit of a slump, but someone gave me some advice and I was able to write this.**

**I hope you like it!**

**I do not own Sword art online nor any of its characters!**

* * *

The day had started out pretty great.

Even though Liz had a lot of weapons she had to tend to, she had gone through all of them in under 3 hrs.

She could have worked on only a few of them, but she had already been paid, so she felt bad for not working on them sooner.

She was done and had even finished giving maintenance to Shadow Destroyer, Tosuke's rare sword.

And something that occurs to a lot of people after finishing a huge load of work happened to Liz...

She was now completely and utterly bored.

"Why doesn't Tosuke hurry up and get back here already! I have nothing to do now."

Lisbeth began to complain.

Even though she argued with Tosuke a lot, she didn't consider it a bother. In fact, she enjoyed their little arguments. It was nice to have someone she could act casual around.

Suddenly, as if to appease her boredom, someone entered Liz's store.

"Coming!" She yelled out immediately after hearing the bell ring.

When she got to the main part of the store she saw someone standing there looking at her with a smile.

It was the one other person she acted normal around.

It was Asuna.

"Liz! It's been a while!" Asuna ran to Liz and gave her a hug.

Happy to see her friend again, Liz smiled and hugged Asuna back.

"It really has! What brings you here today?"

"I wanted to see you, and also if you can, can you fix my rapier?" Asuna handed her sword to Liz while holding one hand behind her head in a 'I'm sorry for bothering you' type of action.

"Of course!" Liz took the sword that was handed to her.

"Thank you"

"Don't worry about it, it's what I do best"

The two friends walked toward the back of the store (which was larger than the front in terms of height, so they had to go down some stairs). They chatted, catching up on the latest news, and what interesting things they had encountered. Simultaneously, Liz began to work on her friends weapon.

"Oh yeah" Asuna said softly as she remembered something.

"Tosuke told me you had a new sword"

"You saw him? And yeah, I call it my masterpiece!"

"I ran into him in town, he said I should take a look at it if I was coming here"

"Wait a sec, I'll go bring it here" Liz ran up the stairs to the main part of the store and brought the sword, aka her best sword.

"Here you go" Liz handed it to Asuna who stared at it amazed.

"It looks really nice, I'd buy it off of you but I'm a little attached to my current weapon" Asuna and Liz both chuckled after she said that.

Asuna gave the sword back and Liz put it aside and continued her maintenance on Asuna's current sword. Her rapier. It was really beautiful and seemed to almost have been made for Asuna. It was a turquoise color and had the appearance of a fencing sword. But, it looked a lot sturdier than a fencing sword. It had a simple design, yet it was complex in its structure. Their beauty complimented each other to the point that you couldn't imagine any other person using that fencing type sword, nor could you imagine Asuna using any other sword.

"Well, that should do it" Liz finished what she was doing and turned to Asuna.

At the same time, Asuna stood up from where she was sitting.

"Thank you Liz" She took the sword from Liz.

"You're welcome… Hey, aren't you supposed to be with the guild today?"

"uh…" Asuna looked to the side before she gave her answer, as if she was looking for the right words.

"I took the day off. I'm meeting with someone later."

That's when Lisbeth noticed, her friend was dressed up more than usual. She couldn't help but smile and gave the same ominous smile of teasing that Asuna had given Tosuke earlier.

"I see, so that's it" Liz leaned in and tapped Asuna with her elbow.

"What do you mean?"

'Ding Dong Ding!' Suddenly the clock striking the start of the next hour rang.

"I have to go!" Asuna ran up the stairs.

"You've found someone important then" Liz muttered.

"Huh!?" Asuna turned around towards Liz.

"It's nothing, wouldn't want to keep your date waiting!"

"It's not like that! Anyway, see you later" Asuna ran off to her date (though she still won't admit it).

* * *

Asuna couldn't believe how perceptive those around her were, she had made sure that she didn't look overly excited for anything after Tosuke had noticed. But now Liz had seen something too.

"Jeez" she thought "these people are imagining things."

* * *

Floor 60

Fighting was the only thing he was really good at in this world.

He would lose himself in the fights, sometimes blacking out for several seconds at a time.

He should probably be concerned about it, but Kirito didn't really give it much thought. I mean, he's never caused anybody problems because he blacked out, so he didn't pay it too much attention.

Today he wasn't blacking out, and there were two main reasons.

1: He was trying something new and wanted to learn and remember as much as possible from it.

And,

2: He had agreed to meet with someone later that day, and if he was late and kept her waiting… well who knows what might happen, but it couldn't be anything nice.

He was currently fighting a regular opponent in the 60th floor, it was a golem.

Golem knight was its name.

Kirito really didn't have much of a problem fighting this monster normally, but he was taking longer than usual because of one thing.

One of the reasons that kept him from blacking out during the fight.

He was trying something new.

What was it?

He had discovered something not too long ago in his skill list.

Dual wield.

For some unknown reason, he was now able to equip to separate weapons and fight while using both.

He really only used one sword, his one handed long sword known as Elucidator

It was a very rare sword. Infact, it was the strongest weapon you could get as a monster drop.

The golem swung its fist toward Kirito trying to damage him with brute strength. Kirito dodged by moving aside a bit and using his sword to press against the golems large arms and propel himself away from the monster, gaining a distance of about 4 meters.

Kirito had equipped his Elucidator, but he also had a regular iron sword held in his left hand.

This combination wasn't working well.

The golem came running toward Kirito, so Kirito bent down slightly and launched himself to the golem as well.

The golem again swung its fist in an attempt to damage him, but once again, thanks to his incredible reaction time, Kirito dodged the attack while dashing toward him at high speed.

He then activated a sword skill, he began to cut down the golem.

He swung his left hand, then his right, left again, right again.

Left, right left, right, right, left, left.

Speeding up one after the other, twisted his body to avoid any attempts from the golem to counter attack, but before he could finish the combo…

*Shattering noises*

The iron sword broke!

"uh oh"

Kirito's face suddenly turned serious.

He pulled his Elucidator as close to himself as he could in a defensive position.

Not even a second past after he pulled the sword back that the giant fist made contact and sent kirito flying back several meters.

"That was close" He thought.

Kirito dashed forward again, this time holding only one sword.

And in just 3 hits, the golem shattered and disappeared.

"I guess I won't be able to use dual wield very well unless I get a better sword"

Kirito checked the time and saw that it was almost the time he had agreed on, and so he began to walk toward a teleport station.

…

Kirito had tried to use many different swords along with Elucidator in order to use dual wield.

The results were not very good.

Because there was such a huge difference in levels of the swords his use of the two swords were far from perfect.

This was the first times it actually broke during a combo though.

He had tried using other monster drop swords, but none of them were as strong as his main weapon. "Maybe if the sword is the same size and weight it will work out somehow" is what he thought…

It didn't.

But now he didn't know what to do.

Maybe it was time to look for a weapon made from a blacksmith, and not an NPC (since those aren't as good).

It's a good thing there were players in Sword Art Online that decided to be blacksmiths.

Back when they were fighting in the second floor, they began to show up. There weapons were far above what NPC's could make, and they have helped better equip players who fought in the frontlines.

"But where?"

Kirito only knew of one man who sold weapons, but he was very good at ripping people off.

Although, Kirito didn't think he would do that to him.

Still, he needed to find someone else just to avoid any trouble (plus, did he even count as a blacksmith?)

Kirito arrived to his destination, having already gone through the teleport gate and walked all the way to the place he was to meet up.

"Who can I ask? Where could I find a good blacksmith?" Kirito kept racking his brain trying to figure it out.

Still, nothing came to mind.

"This is gonna drive me crazy! How am I supposed to use dual wielding in a fight without the proper equipment?" He grabbed his head with both hands in a frustrated/stressed out motion.

"Maybe I should use two weaker swords with the same stats"

He then saw the person he had been waiting for.

He had been there a while now, but his internal monologue kept him busy.

"Kirito! Have you been here long?" She asked.

"No, I just got here" was his response.

Of course! He can just ask her for a suggestion, she is the second in command of one of the most well know guilds.

They both walked and talked.

"Hey, do you know of a good blacksmith?"

* * *

**So that's it for this chapter.**

**Kirito showed up! Hurray!**

**Truth is I fear putting him in this fanfiction, I keep thinking that I'll mess up and not portray his character correctly. But he was there, I hope I wasn't too off.**

**I hope you liked it. Please rate, give me tips please! Haha (you don't have too)**


	4. Unimportant Decision

**So, I finally decided to upload chapter 4.**

**I've been meaning to write more for this fanfiction, but I can't seem to gather my thoughts as they are always scattered. (It doesn't help that I have days where I don't feel like doing anything).**

**So I decided to add a new character in this story (new for this fanfiction, but an existing character in the real series). **

**I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer:**

**I don't own Sword Art Online nor any of its characters!**

* * *

*Ching a-ling*

Little bells rang as he entered the shop.

"I'm back!" He yelled.

"Coming!" Said a cute voice from the back of the shop.

"How is she? Is she going to make it?"

"It was an extensive surgery that, if done wrong, could have cost her life."

"Gasp!" he said

"I did what I could…"

"No" Tosuke grabbed the left side of his chest and made a pained expression.

"And everything came out good, she made it and is now in better condition than ever!"

"*tear streaming down one cheek* thank you doctor, thank you so much!" Tosuke made an overreacting jump of joy.

"pfff…hahahahaha" Lisbeth began to laugh followed by Tosuke.

"hahaha, thanks. What is it hard?"

"Nope, nothing's that difficult for a blacksmith of my skill!"

Lisbeth brought out shadow destroyer and handed it back to its owner.

Having just received his sword back, Tosuke equipped it and took a look at it.

A dark sword that glowed orange when swung. It had a unique design that was hard to describe, but it was an amazing weapon. Simple, and symmetrical.

Tosuke had encountered many difficult battles alongside shadow destroyer, and had overcome them all.

He couldn't remember the other weapons he used, because that's just how much he came to trust the weapon he carried with him. Even though it was just an object, even though it was just a virtual object, he was attached to it.

His train of thought changed.

"Hey Liz"

"Yeah?"

"Do you want to go eat somewhere? It's on me. "

"You can just pay me in cash, you don't have to treat me to anything."

"No, that's not what I meant. The food has nothing to do with my payment for your blacksmithing services."

"Well, if it's on you… Sure, you better get ready though, because I'm not going to hold back." Liz gave a scary smile.

"I was prepared for that, you've never held back in front of me anyway." Tosuke commented.

"Are you implying that I'm not a proper lady?" she narrowed her eyes and glared at Tosuke.

"No, not at all! If I wanted to say that, I would say it to your face." He responded with a grin.

"You know, there are a lot of weapons here in my shop. I could use any of them to hurt you."

"haha…uh oh…" Tosuke's laugh changed to a face that showed his acknowledgement of his mistake.

"So! I think we should hurry up and go eat, I'm starving! Aren't you starving? Food is both nutritious and delicious! So order as much as you can. Come on, let's go!" Tosuke nerviously tried to change the subject speaking extremely quickly.

"Don't try to squeeze your way out of-"

Tosuke turned around and began walking towards the door making exaggerated movements will simultaneously talking. "Food, food, food, how I love you food!"

"Hey wait up! We're going right now? Wait for me!" Liz followed Tosuke trying to get his attention.

* * *

For being an RPG, SAO didn't have any magic.

And although that would normally have been a problem in other RPG's, Sword Art Online never had that problem.

Maybe it was because everybody who played it are currently stuck inside and have to risk their lives in order to someday get out of the game.

The monsters were standard.

Well, standard may be the wrong word here…

The monsters were all good representations of what you would expect in an RPG. There were no robots, no mechanically engineered monsters with cyborg body parts etc…

The game was consistent with itself.

And since the lead group had made it past more than half of the floors already, one could assume that this game was beatable.

Kayaba Akihiko may be a pretty messed up guy for trapping everybody here, but other than that, he seemed to be a pretty decent guy. The game was fair.

Though he had heard of a rumor a while back about there being a series of PK's inside a safe zone, since nobody really mentioned it anymore he marked it as a baseless rumor.

Being stuck in a world where your sword skills will save you is tough, but it would be even tougher if magic was involved. I mean, could you imagine having to fight goblins lizard things while avoiding fireballs coming from the sky and having a kill taken away from you because the enemy was healed by magic?

That would seriously suck.

Tosuke was in the middle of an internal conflict. He couldn't decide if he should go fight in the front lines, or if he should wait a while longer and level up in the lower floors.

He wasn't going to lie to himself, he was scared to fight against high level monsters who had a possibility of killing him.

But then again, he didn't think there were a lot of people who weren't afraid of death.

He had fought in the front lines before, so it wasn't exactly going to be a new experience for him.

Yet, he still hesitated.

"Well, it's time like these that you should just act."

Tosuke made his decision.

Though it was more like if he removed any decision making from himself and just did the first thing that came to mind.

"So… what floor was it again?"

It's true, he really didn't know what the highest floor you could currently go to was.

He had neglected that type of information for a while.

Of course, he did know that they were in floor sixty. Sixty something…

"Guess I need to find that out"

And so, Tosuke went on his new task. That is, to find out what floor the lead group was currently fighting on.

He walked into town and headed for the teleport gate.

* * *

"Listen, there are only a limited resources in an mmorpg. And soon the fields around the town of beginnings will be hunted dry."

_Don't say it._

"Why don't you come with me?"

_Give him a different answer!_

"If it were only two, no, even one more would be-"

_Say you'll go with him! Say it please!_

"Alright, I'll see you again"

_WAIT! STOP, PLEASE WAIT! I'LL GO WITH YOU!_

"!-"

Klein woke up after having what was now a recurring nightmare.

It was a memory of that day, when he had started to play Sword Art Online for the first time.

He was new and asked for help from the first person he saw that looked like he knew what he was doing.

That's when he found out there was no log out button.

That's when they found out that they were trapped in this world.

That's when his decision to stay behind and wait for some friends turned into a poison dagger that dug itself into the first friend he made in that world. The one who taught him how to survive in it.

After he had said his goodbye, Klein went to meet with his pals from another MMO. They were happy that he was there to teach them, and he was happy that he gave them the skills he himself received. But that decision to stay behind hurt the one who offered his help.

It wasn't that this person was shallow and didn't care about the friends Klein was speaking of. It wasn't that he felt betrayed because the person he taught didn't want to follow him. It was because he regretted abandoning new players who had a much smaller chance of surviving than he did.

Klein sometimes wished that he had gone with him.

Though this thought came up only because he wanted to prevent the suffering Kirito went through and still experiences to this day.

Klein can see it in his eyes. Every time they meet or run into each other, a sad expression appears in Kirito's eyes.

One of regret.

One of sorrow.

And.

One of self-hate.

Klein was suffering too, he just wouldn't admit it. Because, compared to _him_, his suffering was nothing.

After having calmed down a bit, Klein got out of bed and equipped his samurai uniform.

It wasn't actually a costume, it was armor that he used to enhance his battle style since he fought with a katana.

Klein lived alone somewhere in floor 50. He had raised enough money to buy his current home after constantly fighting monsters in the field and dungeons with his guild _Fuurinkazan_.

Currently, the front lines was in floor 65.

His small guild was one of the many guilds who fought in the front lines.

And although it wasn't as well known as the knights of the Blood, it was still a strong guild that was essential in the front lines.

Many players had stopped fighting on the highest floor, they were afraid of dying. Others were just getting used to living inside the game world and were starting to think that it wouldn't be so bad if they stayed there for the rest of their lives.

Klein left his home and headed to the teleport gate.

"Hey Klein, do you still want to go back to the real world?" one of his friends who was also a part of his guild asked him.

"Hell yeah, I have an overdue pizza waiting for me at home"

And so the _Fuurinkazan_ went out to fight yet again in order to raise their levels and take another step towards their goal of beating the game and going back home in the real world.

* * *

**And that's it for this chapter.**

**I was actually thinking about splitting it up because of how out of place some parts seem to be.**

**Anyway, did you like it? What about Kleins appearance?**

**I always thought that Klein felt just as bad as Kirito about that day where they split up and went their separate ways. I thought this the first time I watched episode 3 (red nose raindeer), when they see each other and Kirito averts his gaze from Klein and Klein thinks "Is that still bothering you?"**

**Well, as of two weeks ago (February 7?) I caught up to the light novels…I want more, that's all I'm going to say about that.**

**I'll keep trying to improve my writing and come up with some good ideas for you guys to read.**

**Until the next chapter.**

**Please review!**


	5. A Golem rolls

**Took me a while, but here it is! The long awaited for chapter 5. (I like to think people wait for my chapters) **

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer:**

**Again, I do not own Sword Art Online nor any of the characters of SAO.**

* * *

Floor 65

Castle Labyrinth: front lines

Golems have many human like characteristics.

For example, they have a head, two arms, and two legs. Their body structure is essentially the same most of the time. And they fight using weapons that any other player in SAO would use. This includes simple hand to hand combat, or simply put, punching and using their body as a weapon.

There were two golems fighting against one player.

These golems were made up of hardened mud, or "mudrock."

They were in the considered to be in the middle range in terms of difficulty amongst the many type of golem monsters that appeared in all of the 60 and above floors that had been reached so far.

To tell the truth, an inexperienced player would die in less than 10 seconds against two of them even if they were in a pretty high level.

The player stuck fighting these two dangerous and tough monsters wasn't an amateur, but he wasn't as accustomed to fighting against monsters in the front lines as he used to be.

This sudden change of setting from an atmosphere of being completely safe (or at least an illusion of safe), to one of danger and death, could result in the player making bad decisions and not fighting to their full potential. Thus, a player who would normally take out a monster in 30 seconds, could take several minutes fighting on the defensive.

In a game were the monsters learned as you fought (though mechanically), dragging out a fight while fighting on the defensive could prove fatal for the player.

The two golems attacked in sync, while one was attacking, the other was preparing its own attack.

Fighting in the front lines after so long was probably a mistake, while taking the attacks head on from the first golem, Tosuke couldn't help but think this somewhere deep inside of himself.

After blocking the first strike, the second, coming from the other golem was sent directly to him and even though he moved fast enough to parry the blow with his sword, the attack from the golem finally kept him occupied long enough to let the other monster throw its fist at him.

Tosuke was hit on his right side and was sent flying and hit the ground.

Lying there and trying to recover from the blow, he was an easy target for any monster.

The two, that were currently engaged in a battle against him, saw the opportunity and lunged forward.

Tosuke managed to kick off the ground and propel himself forward as well. He was prepared to take out one of them even if it let him open for an attack by the other. But, hopefully, there might be enough time for him to dodge any blow that was sent to him.

Both golems let out a weird cry unique to earth type golems. They were very intimidating, but that didn't scare him away. Instead Tosuke let out a cry of his own, "haaaa!"

The golem to the left of him lost its arm with the swing of his sword. And quickly in a swift motion, Tosuke activated an uppercut sword skill.

"With this, I'll be able to finish of the first golem, just have to hope the second takes its sweet time to attack" While thinking this, Tosuke noticed the monster to his right wasn't going to wait any longer. He was done for. If he was hit first, he wasn't going to get another change to take one of them down, let alone both of them.

As time slowed down, the swords skill began to take its path upward in order to deliver the final blow to the golem. Simultaneously the other golem swung its fist toward the defenseless side of the dark clothed player.

At that moment, just before any attack made contact, another sword appeared from behind Tosuke. This sword not only stopped the rocky fist from hitting its target, it also sent the monster back a few steps.

Time sped up again as the sword skill connected and the golems HP reached zero, shattering into pieces, it disappeared.

"You solo players are such a handful, seriously"

A voice came from the direction where Tosuke was supposed to have been hit.

Standing there holding a katana, was a red clothed samurai who was the leader of a small guild.

Tosuke had met this man before, and was grateful to see him.

"Especially the ones who use one handed swords"

Klein cracked a grin while in a stance preparing for an attack against the enemy in front of him.

"Haven't seen you around this parts in a while, you finally making your comeback in the frontlines?"

"Well, you know. Can't play it safe forever."

Tosuke said while grinning himself.

The tables had turned, what was once two golems vs one player turned into two players vs one golem.

"So, how do you want to take care of this guy?" Klein asked but was completely ignored.

The player using a one handed sword charged at the golem with a sword skill, Vertical Square.

One, two, three, four hits, and the golem let out a shout as its life shrank to nothing.

Looking dumbstruck, Klein let out a "if you could do that, why were you having trouble with them in the first place?"

Putting his sword back to its sheath, Tosuke looked at Klein, tilted his head a little and let out a light laugh with his hand behind his head.

"Well, you know… takes time to get back into it."

* * *

After having that dream again, Klein didn't expect to see someone who had similar traits to his old friend. Nonetheless, he ran into him.

Or better said, he arrived just in time to save his behind from getting completely crushed in battle.

Klein didn't understand why there existed solo players in a game like Sword Art Online. He would understand if it was your regular RPG. But, this game came with many dangers. Dying here meant the body that was laying down with a device on its head would cease to exist.

Fear was something that existed in everyone. As long as you were human, you can't escape it.

That said, these solo players didn't seem to fear for their lives!

It was confusing, how can it be that someone can care about another's life more than that person themselves?

Klein couldn't help but think that he had to babysit this kid who decided to fight in the frontlines after so long and went at it solo.

"Thanks man, just until I get the hang of it again is enough, but still thanks. It'll help me out a lot."

Tosuke accepted the invitation to form a party with Klein.

It would just be the two of them since it would be awkward if the members of _Fuurinkazan_ were to join them.

Although the guild got along with this solo player, there was still that atmosphere between them as being the friend of a friend.

Tosuke wasn't exactly great with people, though he did tend to talk a lot with those he knew well enough.

Klein knew this so he told his guild mates that he'd meet up with them later.

Their teamwork was a little shaky at first, they didn't have a lot of opportunities to fight side by side like they were doing today. But they both began to understand each other after fighting a third monster.

"Hey Tosuke, there's something I'm curious about."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"How is it that you got caught up fighting two golems at once? I mean it isn't impossible, but two golems working together to fight one player doesn't really happen too often."

"Uh, well… There were actually three of them."

"Whaaat!" Klein almost fell to the floor after hearing that.

"Okay, three working together, now that's just unheard of! How unlucky do you have to be to have something like that happen to you after not showing up to the front lines in a long time?"

It was true, golems rarely worked together in groups, but occasionally you could find two golems working together. But three was just ridiculous. Golems tended to keep their distance from each other so it was rare to see two or more being in the same vicinity together. Although if they were lured out using some sort of item, it could happen. No, that's the only way it could happen.

"I know right! Well the first golem was a lot closer to me than the other two, I took it down just before the other two reached me."

Tosuke may be a pretty good fighter, but if fighting two golems at once was tough, fighting three or more and making it out alive was nearing impossible.

"There's probably someone out there who's out to get you. If there is someone out there who has something against you, I think I know how they feel. You can be a pain." Klein said unable to resist the urge to insult Tosuke.

"Hey know, if you have something against me I can always form a party with one of the golems and fight you instead." Tosuke didn't back down and shot back.

"Now hold on just a bit, I'm doing you a favor here by partying up with ya."

"I don't know about that, It looked to me like you were struggling against the golems and not me haha." Of course Tosuke was lying, Klein was a very capable fighter. There was a reason why he was the leader of _Fuurinkazan_.

"Hey, I'm the one who saved your butt from flying into next week."

"Oh… Did that happen?"

The two players couldn't help but feel relieved that they could joke like this here in the front lines.

"No, but seriously. Three golems at once, maybe someone used a lure before you arrived trying to level up quickly and ran off when they couldn't handle it."

That was a pretty good hypothesis, some players got cocky and would happily call out as many monsters as they could in order to not waste time looking for them while leveling up. But, if that did happen, and they ran away when they couldn't handle it one couldn't help but wonder if maybe a player was killed because of it.

But, there was always the possibility that an orange guild or a red guild was involved. Although, the indirect method of killing was probably more common with orange guilds who didn't kill players directly, rather than a red guild who seemed to enjoy killing payers personally.

"Maybe you're right, I can't imagine anybody hating me for some reason, and I do try to keep my distance with people to avoid that sort of situation."

One of the reasons Tosuke kept from interacting with people was because he knew that he couldn't get along with everybody. It just wasn't possible. Of course this was just one of the reasons that he kept his distance, he was also very bad at first impressions and felt uncomfortable meeting new people.

"Yeah, I guess so. You can bet I got your back if you're ever in trouble man, just let me know alright?"

"Thanks" Tosuke couldn't help but smile a bit when he heard that.

"…"

"…"

"Laughing Coffin…" Klein couldn't help but say that name.

"Yeah…"

Both players couldn't help but think about the infamous guild who dedicated themselves to PK.

Recently their actions had become more open and occurred more often than before. It was slowly starting to worry the players who were trying to clear the game. Not only were the actions of Laughing Coffin getting in the way of clearing the game, they could make it pointless. What use would clearing the game be if there are no payers left?

"How much longer you want to stay?" Klein asked as they had been fighting for some time now.

"Let's go for two more golems and then get something to eat." Tosuke said as it was getting close to dinner time.

"Sounds good, how about you come and eat with the guild. The guys would love to hear that you're back in action."

Tosuke hesitated for a bit, but decided to go with it anyway. He was in a good mood and felt that talking with the guys from _Fuurinkazan_ would be fun. Plus, it's not like it was the first time he talked to them. So he agreed.

They were interrupted when a mossy looking golem appeared and forced them to resume their fighting.

* * *

Somewhere, near the woods, was an orange player. He had been tasked to use a lure in order to see how some players in the clearing group would react to a tense situation.

He had been tempted to do things in a way that would allow him to steal from the players, but he didn't want to run into any monsters on this floor. He wasn't necessarily strong, and would probably have been killed by some monster or caught by someone from the clearing group.

Normally he wouldn't have even gotten near the 60th floor let alone the current front line.

But, he had been sought out for a job. He would have declined if it wasn't Laughing coffin who brought this job to him.

Who knows what they would have done to him if he refused.

In the end no players from the clearing group were killed, though they did freak out the whole time and all teleported away.

What was the reason for doing something like this?

He had to report what had happened to his client, but he wasn't sure what they were after. Frankly, he was kind of scared.

It was kind of ironic that an orange player like himself who had no regrets when it came to cheating other players and putting them into danger, was scared of being betrayed and put into danger.

"I'll just do what they say for now and hope they leave me alone afterwards"

He hurried to the place he could contact his client hoping this would end soon.

* * *

**And so, there ends chapter 5. **

**I thought really hard where I wanted this fanfic to go. And after failing to come up with a concrete answer, I decided that I should at least start some sort of arc in order to get things moving a little smoother.**

**I hope this works out.**

**Sorry for the late update, it's been 3 months since the last chapter was uploaded and I thought "schools out, you don't have any excuses to not write now!" And so I wrote. **

**Thanks for reading and I hope you continue to read as this story begins to go in some direction (finally! Haha)**

**If you would like to review, please do. I gladly welcome any comments.**

**See ya next chapter.**


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